Brother Voodoo: Sorcerer Supreme

Finally after a few months of speculation and a bit of fighting, the Marvel Universe has a new Sorcerer Supreme -- and it's who you least expected.

In the pages of New Avengers, Doctor Voodoo, formerly known under the title of Brother Voodoo, has been granted the Eye of Agamotto, the Cloak of Levitation and has replaced Doctor Strange as the Master of the Mystic Arts. From now on, when there's magical mumbo that needs to be resolved, the heroes of the Marvel Universe will be knocking at his door instead.

You may be asking yourself-- "What the Hell is going on here?"

I'll admit, my previous exposure to the character has been extremely limited and the character of Brother Voodoo himself has been regarded as something of a joke. I mean, when you've got a universe full of mutants, gods, aliens and superheroes, guys like Voodoo get regulated to the background pretty quickly. However, if there's one thing I've learned about New Avengers writer Brian Michael Bendis, it's that he loves to give older, more obscure characters the spotlight.

Before Bendis took over the Marvel Universe, I could have cared less for characters like Luke Cage, Spider-Woman or Mockingbird. These were characters who were big in the 70s and 80s but lost their way when the 90s hit and never seemed to recover (or in the case of Mockingbird, were flat-out killed off!) Under Bendis' hand, these characters not only regained prominence, they became cool again.

And, let's face it, Marvel has been all about the big shakeups lately. From Civil War to Dark Reign, the world that these comics incompass has been changed and shaped and it has made for some very interesting tales. The status quo gets boring fast and giving our heroes new obstacles and agendas to work with has helped to keep things fresh.

I'm not clarevoyant, so I can't be sure if this Doctor Voodoo, Sorerer Supreme thing is ever going to pan out. But I can be sure that no matter what happens, it will make for some interesting and frankly entertaining reading. Bendis continues to keep us on our toes and prove that as long as the universe is under his hand, literally anything can happen.

"Ultimate Spider Man" ends with a fizzle

Hey guys, I take back what I said last week about Spider-Man being good again.

This week saw the end of the Brian Michael Bendis penned Ultimate Spider-Man and it ends with the worst issue imaginable. Please look around your feet, people, for a ball that may be rolling around because Bendis just dropped it.

Okay, fanboy dramatics aside, the book was obviously phoned in because next month the two-part miniseries Ultimate Spider-Man Requiem begins which will most likely be a much better end to the Ultimate Spider Man saga. These books are practically written for trade collection and Marvel will most likely collect this final arc along with Requiem in one book, making this lackluster final issue just another chapter in a bigger graphic novel.

But still, I paid $3.99 for this piece of junk and it had absolutely no words! Not even a sound effect, the entire issue was done silently, told only in pictures. I can get behind the concept of a silent comic, but only when it's done well, and Bendis, for all of this talents, just does not pull it off with this one.

I'm gunna throw up a SPOILER ALERT for all of you kids who care about those things, but to be honest the entire "story" of the issue is told on the cover. If you see the cover, then you have already spoiled the story for yourself.

Anywho, the issue is a jumble of random scenes. Spider-Woman fights Hulk, Hulk fights helicopters, Spider-Woman looks around. Spider-Woman looks at rubble to try to find Spider-Man. Then Kitty shows up and she looks around. Then people are trapped so they rescue them. Then they look around. Then they shout around. Then they look at rubble.

Are you getting the idea?

For the entire two minutes that it took to read this issue, I was bored to tears. There was nothing interesting happening in the panels to warrent a silent comic. In fact, I think even with dialogue it would still a meandering, pointless waste of my money.

And I guess that's kind of ironic. As much as even a few months ago Ultimate Spider-Man was still a well written, fun loving breath of fresh air from the stale Peter Parker that the normal continuity's version had grown into. But now the tables are turned. Spider-Man is good again, and his younger, hipper, revamped Ultimate Spider-Man has died with a whimper.

That is of course, until Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1 hits later this year.